Spare time whilst cooking - lighthearted

[TheSunIsStillShining]

I cook dinner every day. Appr. 340 days of the year. Making dinner by now is about 25-50 mins.
There is downtime of 5-10 mins - waiting for the water to boil, waiting for pasta to cook, stirring occasionally..... things like that.
I usually do some kind of "research" into whatever is my latest flight of fancy is that I don't have "officially" time for and actually learn a lot in a few days time just by using this time.
I had the idea of using my Raspberry Pi as a recording tool with a direct input pedal that I bought a few weeks ago. I know very little about signals, recording in general. But in 3 days I have the whole thing figured out. (yes, basic level)
I mentioned this in passing to a friend who was amused on how did I find the time to research/look up/learn the bare basics when she knows I have been working over the holidays, this weekend ....
I thought everyone uses the cooking time to do stuff. It turns out, after a quick roundtable question to friends, that everyone just sits down with their tablet or phone to play a quick game or to catch up on sm. Or they actually don't do anything but wait.
I am now curious: what is the "norm" in your household? What do you do in the "spare time" whilst cooking when you don't need to slice, dice, chop?

Kitchen tidying. Check on toddler.

Tidy the kitchen or read a book usually. Although often DD comes to "keep me company" which involves her somehow simultaneously asking me questions, performing a complex dance and playing with the dog.

I call my mum or a mate to catch up quick and say hi!

I generally use the down time in cooking dinner to prep a different dinner for the slow cooker then leave it overnight to cook. So lots of dinners in one!

I pace up and down to get more steps in!

I sort the kitchen out. My kitchen is so strange - I always leave it clean and tidy, and then when I come back to it, it's somehow a mess.

I am in awe of everyone who can read in this time. For me that means burnt meat, overcooked everything and probably the smoke alarm going off :)

for me it is not about filling my time with productive things or specifically learning for the sake of learning, it's the time that I can spare on something that otherwise I would not. Or otherwise get sucked into it for hours which I don't have time for.

Usually clean the bits I've needed to cook like chopping boards. I find it all really boring though, usually listen to a podcast or audio book while cooking.

I listen to a podcast and try and get a few extra steps in.

Dance.

Kitchen chores or play on phone. I'm talking about 5 mins here and there. Sometimes do physio exercises or read on kindle.

I think the difference is you have a lot of other free time in the day. On a work day for me, cooking is the space between finishing work and focusing on home. My head is often still full of work.

If the kitten is sleeping I'll knit a few rows on a sock, if he's awake we'll play together. Sometimes I Google random stuff or quickly do some journaling.

Empty the dishwasher and tidy the kitchen. It always needs tidying!!

thought everyone uses the cooking time to do stuff. It turns out, after a quick roundtable question to friends, that everyone just sits down with their tablet or phone to play a quick game or to catch up on sm. Or they actually don't do anything but wait

This seems very judgy. Playing a game on my phone or catching up on SM are perfectly legitimate ways to spend time. I find a quick round of sudoku or 15 minutes on a jigsaw app very relaxing. Or I might catch up on my steps while reading a paper or watching tv online. And I don't believe people do nothing but wait - are you suggesting they stand still in the kitchen staring at the wall only moving again when the pasta is cooked?